


Rising Tide

by PencilSketchS



Series: Firmanent [2]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angry Dean Winchester, Castiel (Supernatural) is Bad With Telephones, Castiel Loves Dean Winchester, Castiel believes in Jack, Castiel is Jack Kline's Parent, Episode: s14e19 Jack in the Box, Everyone Needs A Hug, Gen, I Don't Even Know, Introspective Castiel (Supernatural), Missing Scene, Phone Calls & Telephones, Possibly Unrequited Love, Post-Episode: s14e18 Absence, castiel - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-25
Updated: 2019-04-25
Packaged: 2020-01-31 17:02:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18595618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PencilSketchS/pseuds/PencilSketchS
Summary: A series of phone calls between Castiel and Sam that take place over the course of Episode: s14e19 Jack in the Box. A continuation of Castiel's perspective as the season comes to an end.





	Rising Tide

**Author's Note:**

> Sbritton, this is for you, because you asked so nicely for a sequel, and I've finally figured out how to go about writing it. 
> 
> I do plan to add at least one more after tomorrow's finale because I have a feeling I am going to be a broken sobbing person at the end of it, if the trailer is anything to go by, and I know I'm going to have all the Castiel feels. Dean, you're breaking my heart here.

“Well, bully for you. Even if I was inclined to help you, I’m not keen on putting myself in that boy’s sights any time soon, now am I. Self preservation and all, aye.” And with a huff, Rowena dropped the call, leaving Castiel to grit his teeth in frustration.

He had no need for an explosive sigh, but human mannerisms were hard to shake once adopted.

Castiel didn’t get the chance to get his phone back into his coat pocket before it was lit up and ringing in his hand. Sam’s name was displayed on the screen.

“Hello, Sam.” Castiel answered simply, then waited.

“Hey, Cas, um, I noticed you aren’t following. You held up somewhere or something?” Sam asked, sounding tired and worn. Castiel couldn’t hear the rumble of the impala’s engine so they must have pulled over somewhere, maybe to get gas. They wouldn’t have reached the bunker yet.

“I was thinking of going to Rowena’s, find out what she can tell me about Jack, maybe have her help find him, but she’s shut me down.” Castiel delivered his information dutifully. “Any chance his phone is one and trackable?” He added, not really to optimistic about the prospect.

“Oh, um, I dunno. I guess I can check, hang on,” rustling sounded and the call went quiet for a bit while Sam checked whatever phone tracking programme they’d rigged earlier. Moments later a gusting sign sounded and put that hope to bed, “No, sorry, his phones not showing up on the map. It’s either dead or he got clued in by us finding him earlier and switched it off.”

“Ah,” not his most eloquent response, granted.

“What I actually wanted to ask though, was if you were coming to the bunker? If you could help contacting Bobby and the others, get them to the bunker.”

“Oh, alright, I’ll be there by mid-morning for the latest.” Castiel acquiesced, because really, when didn’t he. He could just imagine the stony silence he’d get from Dean at his arrival, but Sam requested his presence to help make arrangements for Mary, so that’s what Cas would do. He could manage to give Dean some space while doing so somehow. So with that Cas took the next available exit and turned towards the bunker.

 

“Hey, Cas, is Dean with you?” Sam sounded vaguely worried as Castiel answered the phone, halfway to a certain children’s park and the last doorway to heaven.

“No, he’s not. He’s not at the bunker?” Castiel had left after the brothers had gone to sleep. The memorial and the argument with Bobby had left them all tense and drained, awkward in their silence, and eventually Dean had stood almost violently and left the room, supposedly to turn in for the night.

For all that Sam had been trying to hold it together, the silent look of despair on his face to see his brother storm off had caused a vague, nauseous hopelessness to wash through Castiel, and settle over his vessel's - no, his - bones.

Sometimes he wished for the simplicity of being an angel free of emotional consequence.

“Oh, um, he must have gone out then, I’ll try giving him a call again,” Sam said, and Cas finally looked over at the clock in the Dashboard. It was just after 5am, unusually early for Dean to be up and about.

“How about you, Sam, are you alright?” Let no one say that he was not diligent in his attempts to learn and empathize with the emotional states of those he cared for. Even if he did fail more than succeed most days. But if Sam was actively searching out his brother simply because he was unexpectedly out, then he must either be really rattled, or really worried about Dean.

“Um, yeah, it’s just-” and here Sam hesitated for just a second before making what sounded like a confessions, the words rushing out, “It’s just being here all alone, waking up here to this empty place, I was just feeling a bit trapped, I guess. Anxious. It hasn’t been this quiet in, what, years?”

First Mary, then the alternate universe hunters, but even before that there was Kevin, or Charlie, or Crowley locked in the basement. Everyone that had filled the bunker eventually died. Now it was just Dean and Sam again, even their surrogate family of four broken apart and uncertain.

“I understand. I’m sorry to have left without warning, too, if that’s any consolation. I just… I need to try to find Jack before Bobby does.” He makes his own confession, honestly not certain what the reception will be, because like it or not, he’d not parsed out what Sam’s position was in this situation. Did he want to help Jack, or was he also willing to destroy him for the greater good.

Though Sam was far from being an 'ends justifying the means' sort of hunter, Mary was his mother, and he too might find that Jack was just not redeemable. 

Nevermind that just days ago Jack was the closest thing to a son any three of them had.

Castiel has so jealously coveted that thought. Firstly, because he really did love Jack. He always had, to be honest, since their first contact at their encounter against Daigon. But also because it was one more familial, domestic, vital connection to Dean. Dean, whose affection could be as freely given as it was taken away, but who fiercely guarded his heart of hearts and only seldom allowed anyone to slip into it. 

Castiel could never be sure that Dean had ever truly let Castiel settle there. Maybe they had too much conflict between them despite their initial bond - created out of shared trauma and escape from hell. But surely Jack was Cas’s anchor into Dean’s heart then, Cas remembers thinking - perhaps grossly inappropriately - after Jack had died and he’d felt their family fracture the first time.

“Yeah, well, I’m sure Dean’ll show up sometime. If you don’t have any luck today, head back here, okay. I could use some company other than my own or my stubbornly tight lipped brother’s.” Sam concluded before they hung up, leaving Cas more determined that ever to get results, no matter who he had to shake to get them.

On second thought, the thought of angels was giving them a headache, and he really was not looking forward to having to deal with them.

 

“Cas, you on your way back yet?” Sam asked over the phone as Castiel walked back to his truck, having successfully convinced Dumah to help him with Jack, no matter how tentative her agreement to help might have seemed. It was a small relief. It was likely the only chance they’d get at locating Jack.

“I am. I won’t be long. Dean’s back?” Cas asked.

“Yeah, yeah, he got in a couple hours ago. Um, yeah, maybe bring along some pie. It’s a bit depressing around here right now.”

Cas couldn’t help but smile at that.

 

“I haven’t forgotten the pie, Sam,” Cas answered, not bothering with a greeting as he stared at the familiar road an hour out from the bunker. “Did you need something else? Beer?”

“Um, no, we’re good. It’s just I think I’ve found a case. How far out are you?”

“Fourty five minutes, maybe half an hour if I hurry.”

“Yeah, hurrying might be a good idea. This one is a little strange, and the timing just isn’t sitting right with me.”

“I’m on my way, Sam.”

 

“Sam, listen to me. I’m gonna try and find out what is going on with Jack, maybe Dumah knows something. You and Dean just get to the bunker, and I’ll meet you there once I have more news. Let me know when you get this message, okay? I don’t know about you, but I don’t think Jack is beyond our help, Sam. Just, please.”


End file.
